Want to know about your local water or air quality? The EPA has a great mashup, MyEnvironment, which pulls from their many databases to give you a snapshot of the environment around you. The information includes air and water quality, local pollution sources, pollutant levels and cancer risks, Superfund sites, the UV Index, Radon, and on and on. The search queries can be by zip code or specific area or even landmark.
There’s no excuse now for not being aware of what is nearby.
The EPA developers also created some widgets that can be inserted in your web pages, with a link to their site.